Completed in 2008

Machine knit:





Crochet:




Hand knit:

English rib- instructional video

Here's the video made by Susan, (see previous posts) which shows how to do english rib with and without the SRP-50 ribber, (many thanks to Susan), although in the video is mentioned as fisherman's rib, english rib and fisherman's rib look the same.
She's uses diffrent instructions but either you follow hers or mine, you'll get the same result:



Jennifer, I hope you'll find it useful!

comments on my posts are appreciated!

Bye for now.

Samantha

English rib on KM 321 and SRP-50

Jennifer, here's the instruction that I use on my ribber when doing english rib:



I'll put up a post where you'll find a video which shows how to do English rib with and without the ribber soon.

Talk to you soon.

Samantha

Punchcard test 2 and a sock

I tried another punchcard this afternoon, and it actually became a sock:
Here's a photo of the leg pattern:

Here a photo of the foot which is in plain red:

The other sock will be made this week.

Talk to you in a while.

Samantha

Punchcard test and a new thing, (as always)

Today, I didn't feel like starting a project, so I did a punchcard test instead, you see, Susan, once used a punchcard from the basic set, and it didn't work vey well as there were some dropped stitches here and there, so I decided to ry that punchcard myself and see if the same hing happened on my 321, here's the result of it:
I knitted it with hand knitting 4-ply with no wax at tension 5:

It could become a project, although I'm not sure of using either the knit radar or the Knitware design programme, what do you think I should use?

Talk to you in about an half an hour,

Samantha

Finished item and a new one

Today I finished the hat I made on Sunday, I intended to finish it yesterday, I had a sudden school meeting, I wonder why that happens when you already have plans.
Today I decided I would start on this project, it's done in fisherman's rib, I never done this so, that's why I'm gonna try it:

I'm doing the man's which is supposed to be the larger size (30-inch bust, that's not a very large size is it?). So far I made the rib which is a simple 1x1 rib and then started the fisherman's rib, only made 21 rows!

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about how fisherman rib is done on my machine although Susan and I have the same machines, we do fisherman's rib diffrently, made there's something a little bit diffrent about the ribber, although I don't think so, as if they were diffrent they wouldn't fit the same machine model, they do look alike anyway.

Bye for now.

Samantha

Feeling much better and an almost finished project

Today I felt much better than the past days so, I went to my knitting machine decided to do something.
I did and I made a hat, you wouldn't believe that It took my all morning to make that hat, it was shaped by short-rowing so I had to be very careful of what I was doing and although it sounds stange, I managed to make no mistakes!
I've spent all afternoon finishing it up, and this took a lot of time too. I had to graft some stitches and I did it right, (it's a wonder, I'm no good at grafting), secure the loose ends and make a 2-inch cord that went of top.
There are some things left for me to do, I should have it finished tomorrow and once it's completely finished I'll post a photo.

A lady called Helen, contacted me, and she said that she wanted some information about doing ribs without a ribber, well Helen, firstly it should be something written on your insruction book about hems that can be done without the ribbing attachment:
I think I wouldn't be much clear explaining it in writing so this video from Susan can be of more help, (many thanks to Susan):


Hope this helps.

Bye for now.

Samantha

Double knitting and not much better!

Today, I've put all my energies together, not a lot of energies really as I'm on antibiotics and they wear you out, don't they?

Anyway, I tried double knitting and I did the first thing they tell you to do. To make a full rib with four colours, just to learn how the yarn changer works and it did work properly, in fact the yarns changed every two rows as it should, but to be honest I didn't try the punchcards, I felt too weak to try that, well, that's the next thing to do when I'll feel better. Still I found out that the yarn changer work properly so that's enough for me now.

My sister came visiting me today for help and she asked if I needed something, I said I didn't, and it was true in fact my mam came yesterday and she got me eerything without even asking, my fridge is so full now, I think it's going to explode!

Still there was something I wanted her to do, I never got to get (excuse the choice of words) the Mary Weaver book printed, I had the book on PDF files, and it was time I had it printed,so I gave her my USB drive and told her what she had to do.

Now it does look like a book:

That's all for today!

Bye for now!

Samantha

I've got a new toy and a thing I didn't want

As I expected not many people have voted on the poll, in fact thanks Susan, I'll try it at a diffrent tension and see what will happen!
I see to be getting eerything these days, so I got:

• A YC1 yarn changer.
• An additional yarn mast that actually came with the YC1.
• Spare punchcard clips (the ones I have are almost broken).
• A Close knit bar (it didn't arrive with my ribber).

What I also got on Monday morning, is the flu! Luckly I only had a fever on Monday. Still I don't have much voice, the doctor said it is my tonsils, (I didn't get them out when I was little).

I'm not eating much and I have to spend all the day in bed so I can go to my knitting machine.

Tomorrow I'll try to put all my energies together and see if I can manage to do something.

Bye for now.

Samantha

Machine knitting problem and new toy

Sorry, I haven't been talking with you that much the last few days, but you don't know the week I've had.
Being a teacher in high school, January is a critical month of the school year, you have the parents to meet, join all the grades of my students (68), and write them on their report cards.....
Anyway, moving on, this is a knitting blog, so...
I tried using the side weights on my Mary Weaver project , there shouldn't have been any problems, all the needles would knit properly....
Yeah, right!
It kept doing the same and exact thing, if not worse.
So, not surrending, I tried using the same yarn at a diffrent tension, can you believe it, it worked, but to be honest a I'm so sick of it that I wonder if I should bother finishing it or not. In fact I think I'll put a poll up and see what my few readers think.
Guess what I received yesterday:

A Knitmaster wool winder, as a matter of fact I already have a cone winder, but I hardly ever use it as I have no cones.

I found out that it's better to use this tool before you start knitting, as the yarn runs more freely.

Please do vote on the poll otherwise I won't know what to do, (just kidding).

I'll leave you with a video from my friend Susan, (visit her blog by clicking on "My knitting machines and me" on my sidebar at the right of the blog page).

How to use the cone winder & wool winder:

Bye for now.

Samantha

2x2 rib problem and edge weights

Today, I started knitting the Mary Weaver project that I told you about yesterday and, I had some problems:
It all started at the cast-on, I set the needles, attach the comb with the weights, and start knitting, the stitches on the main machine weren't knitting properly, in fact the groups of two needles would knit as if the were one needle, so what I had was a 1x1 rib with extra loose stitches!
I really don't know how many failed attempts I've made, changing something here and there, but I had the same and exact thing every single time.
But suddenly, I had this thought, one of those that come unexpectedly, I thought: This pattern comes from the Mary Weaver - ribbing attachment book, so since the book is about the ribber, it should say something about my problem, and so it did.
It said that after you set the machine with 2 stitches on main bed and 2 stitches on the ribber, you have to move the swing lever in a certain way so the stitches would knit properly without the two needles working as if they were one.
Can you believe it! It worked! so I start knitting and I had to knit 80 rows, I was about half way there and I realised that the first needles and the beginning and at the end of the row, weren't knitting, they weren't catching the yarn, I thought that the needles were broken, but it wasn't that because it didn't happen all the time.
So my thought is maybe if I put the side weights, (edge weights) on, would that help?
I'm not going to try this evening, I'm going to try tomorrow and I'll tell what happened.....

Bye for now.

Samantha

January project and my videos

Today I decided to start a new project, and since I haven't got a lot of "Modern Knitting" patterns for my 'new' 321, I decided to start a project from the Mary Weaver - Ribbing attachment book:

It's a basic dolman with variation, I'm doing the one at top, with lacy patterned sleeves, and judging from the drawing, the armholes start near the welt.
I'm a You tuber, so I'm going to leave you with the two videos that I have uploaded so far, using a cone winder and knitting a knit stitch english way:

Bye for now,

Samantha

Knitmaster 321 accessories

You remember, when yesterday I talked about the accessories of the Knitmaster 321, the ones I had and the ones I still have to buy? Well, today I'm going to talk about them.

• Knit radar, (KR6): Everything I buy for my knitting machine, comes from eBay, and the KR6 was the first accessory I've bought after the SRP 50 ribber, the knit radar enables you to knit garments, with no need of written instructions, the only thing you have to do is a tension square and choose the pattern paper from the ones that come with it.

Here's a photo of it:

• Liker, (SC1): the liker, enables you to cast off automatically by turning its handle, it also sews up garments, (straight edges on a sweater) on the knitting machine, actually I didn't have much luck with it, because although I think it was attached to the machine correctly, it was stiff to move across the needle bed, so it dropped the stitches and didn't cast off anything! Anyway, I'll try again, I don't surrender that easily.

Here's a photo of it:

• Handy punch, (HP1): the handy punch, is used to punch out blank punchcards and it allows you to create you own stitch patterns and motifs.

Here's a photo of it:

And now what I have to buy:

• Rib transfer carriage, (RT1): it is used to transfer stitches from the ribber to the main bed, but since it can be done with a double eyed transfer tool, this carriage simply makes this action faster to do.

And now I'm going to tell you what happened to me the other day, I was checking my mail and I found an e-mail from eBay which said that an eBay member contacted me, I wasn't selling anything so I was wondering why would a eBayer contact me, but anyway I opened the e-mail and it said that the same seller of the SRP 50 ribber, was wondering which machine model I had because he had a YC1 colour changer, that would fit the Knitmaster 321, at the beginning I wasn't sure so I e-mailed my friend and and she said that at such a low price, (£10), it was worth buying it, and so I did; it should be here, at the beginning of next week.

That's all for now,

Bye,

Samantha

My knitting, my machine and me

This is the first post on my blog, I was convinced by a friend to start one, because aren't a lot of machine knitting blogs, (that's true), so decided I should have given it a try.
In this blog I'll talk about:

• Machine knitting and everything that involves knitting machines.
• Hand knitting
• Crocheting

I've bought my first knitting machine from eBay, and it was a vintage Knitmaster 302 from the mid sixties, it is a standard gauge knitting machine and to create the patterns, it uses push bottons and dials. It's one of the first machines that didn't need to hand-move the needles, to make a pattern. A ribber was made for it but I didn't have it.

Here's a photo of it with0ut the ribber:

My second and current machine, is another of my eBay buys: a Knitmaster 321 from the seventies, I also got for it a SRP 50 ribber. I even bought some more accessories although there are some more I have to buy....

Here's a photo of the 321 and the SRP 50 ribber:

The garments I make come from the patterns in the Modern Knitting magazines that the friend I talked you about at top kindly sends me to time to time.

I hope I wasn't to dull, but,

until next time,

Bye.

Samantha